Beavering

Big excitement on The Daily Stroll!

There we were, just strolling along the part of the Appalachian Trail than runs alongside the Housatonic River the way one does on a fine fall afternoon.

Lots of leaves (colorful, falling), ducks (mergansers, swimming) when Splash! That was a big fish!

But not a fish – a beaver thrashing its tail into the water, swimming and diving in a wide ring as if in a display of prowess just for us. Beavers are the official state animal of NY but this was a first sighting. I’ve seen plenty of felled trees and gnawed trunks and dammed streams but beavers are nocturnal and I had never see one.

A little research and, of course, what we were really doing there – quietly looking at the river intending no harm – was wildlife bothering. Beavers thump their paddle-like tails as a warning to other beavers that danger is near. We must have been close to a lodge on the riverbank.